Sexy Pizza already makes pizzas that benefit three local marijuana activist groups: SAFER, the Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of America and Sensible Colorado. For each specialty pizza sold, a buck goes to the designated organization, and the same deal will hold with LEAP.
According to Sexy owner Kayvan Khalatbari, the shop had wanted to add a fourth benefit pizza for some time and LEAP seemed the logical choice, especially since while Denver voters agreed to make marijuana among the lowest enforceable laws in 2005, arrests have continued to go up. "It goes to show that law enforcement does have the ability to make the right decisions," he says.
And it's purely coincidental that the pizza that now benefits a bunch of current and former cops is topped with Canadian bacon, Khalatbari says; the Hawaiian pizza, which also features pineapple and mozzarella cheese, just happened to be one of Sexy's most-ordered pies.
Tom Angell, national spokesman for LEAP, admits that the pairing of a pizza shop with LEAP's cause is unique, but the organization definitely welcomes the support. "We obviously, as a nonprofit, need as much revenue help as we can get and we appreciate that they made this pie in our honor," he says. "With the legalization campaign coming up next year, several of our former police officers and judges in Colorado are involved in that effort."
Judges like former Lafayette municipal court judge Leonard Frieling, who resigned from office in 2007 over a proposed initiative in the tiny town that would have made the maximum fine for marijuana possession $1,000 and a year in jail. In contrast, the state fine for the same offense is set at $100.
Sexy Pizza also made marijuana news last month, after a Papa Johns Pizza delivery driver called the Aurora cops on a customer whose house smelled of marijuana. Insisting that pizza and pot go together like peanut butter and jelly, Sexy offered to give the customer a free pizza every month until the 2012 election - and if the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol proposal passes, that customer will get free pizza for life.